Chapter Text
Orange feathers, yellow blood, black dog, searing pain and-
“Dave!” You snap up with a shout and scramble for your… wait… oh.
You run your hands over your chest. For a brief moment you’re laying back down on the cold ground, pinned to the dirt with your own katana through your chest, but then you’re back, sitting straight up without a scratch to be found.
It doesn’t take a genius to put two and two together, as weird as it is.
“Ah, Mr. Strider, welcome.”
Everything around you is white, a strange white that’s too bright to be real yet somehow doesn’t hurt your eyes. Wait, shouldn’t you be wearing- Your vision is spontaneously tinted darker as the thought enters your mind. Weird. You reach up just to make sure and yup, there are your shades, just as pointy as you left them.
You hop to your feet and finally turn to who was talking to you. There’s an old man, an old woman, and a couple around your age sitting around some round café table. The young woman is nursing a martini glass while her partner and the old man seem to be drinking coffee.
“You’re dead too?” It’s kind of a dumb question but it had to be asked.
The woman salutes you with her martini as the rest nod.
“Quite a shame, but it can’t be helped.” The old man states, stirring his drink. “It’s part of that blasted game our young ones were hoodwinked into. No adults allowed, I’m afraid.”
“Huh.” You’d known that of course. Cal had told you. Cal told you everything. It was different than you expected though.
There’s an empty chair at the table for you and you take it, straddling it backwards as you face them.
“They okay?”
“They’re alive.” The old woman responds. “I’m afraid that’s as best as we can hope for at this point.”
You nod. Not much you can say to that. Your heart speeds up a bit as a large spatter of yellow blood and orange feathers flickers through your mind’s eye, but you keep your expression impassive. You’d made sure that Dave was prepared for this. He’d be fine.
It’s silent for a moment and you twitch slightly. You’re not used to silent.
The old man clears his throat. “Well I believe introductions are in order. Jake Harley is my name. Pleasure to make your acquaintances.”
“Jane Egbert.” The old woman says, nodding. “And this is my son Jeff.” She pats the young man on the head and he smiles a bit.
“Roxy Lalonde!” The woman chirps, flashing you a bright smile before sipping on her drink.
“Dirk Strider.” You introduce shortly giving them all a nod.
It’s quiet again.
“So,” The old man, Jake, brakes the silence again. Apparently he doesn’t like it either.
You wander off after a bit. Apparently everyone except you and Roxy are related somehow and have some catching up to do. Roxy sticks around, having the benefit of being in a thing with Jeff and generally giving a shit. You, however, don’t really care.
You spend a bit messing around with the ‘think and it shall appear’ feature of what you guess is your new home. It works pretty well. If you can remember an object you can recreate it. If you stop thinking about it, however, it disappears. Food tastes like what you remember it to be. You can’t create anyone living however. The most you can get is an empty shell, no soul inside you guess.
You can hold your breath indefinitely if you don’t think about it too much. Recreate Huston from memory. And if you walk too far in any direction you always end up back at the table with the rest of them.
After that… you’re not sure what else to figure out. Seems pretty simple. All and all not a bad place to spend… eternity you guess. Not quite sure how death works. It’s still quiet though, and you can’t seem to help the nervous tick you’re developing because of it.
There’d always been some sort of noise in your life. You grew up in a busy city after all. Full of people and activity. Even in those rare quiet moments Cal was always there, whispering to you, telling you everything. There was always some sound. Now there wasn’t anything.
Your heart is starting to speed up again and you clench your hands reflexively.
Cal’s not here. You’ve never been without him for this long.
Okay, okay, no you can deal. You can do this. It’s just…
You take a deep breath and stand up straight. You’re a Strider. You don’t get upset. You think. Problem solve. Right. Okay. Cal’s not here. Yet. No problem. You can just…
Remembering him isn’t hard. You have every stitch of him memorized, but when you think about him, even as hard as you can. Nothing happens. He doesn’t appear like everything else. Not even a shell.
You can’t make him appear.
Why can’t you make him appear?
Your hand is shaking and you can’t seem to stop it, even when you hold it with your other one.
Cal’s not here. You can’t make him appear. You… you’re stuck without Cal… forever.
Okay, no, so, not the most preferable situation but you can deal. Cal was a big part of your life but you can live, well, exist without him. You’ll be okay.